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Music video – Need assistance
Hey guys
I offered to do a music video for a local band for free. The place I live in is very small and so equipment is hard to get (mostly ordered) anyway I have been editing DSLR footage for a little while now.
I’d like to post my equipment here, as well as my ideas, and hopefully get some feedback…
Equipment:
2 x Canon eos 7d cameras
2 x tri-pods
1 x shoulder mount camera stabiliser
2 x flood lights (no dim control, they are like those lights used in construction)
Lenses (not many)1 x 50mm 1.4 canon
2 x 18 – 55mm 3.5
1 x Nikon super macro 55mm 3.5
1 x Gopro hero point-of-view camera with suction cup mount, handle-bar mount, sticky mountThe location is at the only rock club in the area.
Its in a cave basically but they have loads of lights, a small stage and a small dance area.My idea is to basically shoot 1 song, atleast 10 times including crowd shots, having the point of view camera placed on the mic stands,on the bridge of the guitar, and within the crowd. Also, to have one of the 7d’s on a tripod facing the crowd, but different locations for each song.
I wanted to just improvise with the editing. We plan to shoot again on another night with no crowd, to switch between full house and empty, and to also film the band from one location, then film each musician individually, from the same location, to cut later on (for individual solos for example) from having a full band to having just 1 or 2 musicians individually. I think you can see this in System of a down’s “Toxicity” video, where 1 musician completely pauses while the others play on.
Questions I have so far are:
Lighting : Should I switch up the lighting each time they play the song? Since i have only 1 lens that is good in low light, i’d like to do a few shoots with the flood lights blaring
Frames per second : Should I constantly shoot in 60p or 50p so as to have much smoother footage later on (for example, on 24p?) Or should I switch between frame rates to have a mixture of slow motion and normal speed?) It’s just that i really like the cinematic feel of 24p, but will this give me issues later on with syncing?
I guess whenever filming the singer, to film in 25p to ensure I can sync with the song later on? But will it give me issues if I chop and change?
What do I suggest to the crowd?
What do I suggest to the band? To have the most stage presence?
When choosing which song to do, how do I resolve conflict of interest between myself and the band? They’d like to rather do an older song that the crowd knows and can sing along, however their newer stuff is more commercial.
Anyway thanks alot for taking the time to read, I hope I can get some constructive feedback.
Thanks again
Kyle -
3 Replies
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Sounds like you’ve thought things out.
First, limit the amount of light changes. It’s better to light them up with white, blue, amber, yellow lighting. Stay away for red.
So, it’s important to plan and emphasize to your lighting guy, not to light like a normal concert. Light for video. Spell it out or they’ll screw up the shots.
Red will wash out their faces and make them look sunburned. White / clear & Blue lighting will give you the best looking features, with some back lighting of yellow / amber. Limit the amount of flashing the lights. I prefer shooting the whole thing a few times with locked in color and then a few with some crazy lighting for the solos, peaks of the songs, etc.
Mix in a crane and dolly behind the crowd to give yourself some added shots.
Brent Dunn
Owner / Director / Editor
DunnRight Films
DunnRight Video.com
Video Marketing Toolbox.netSony EX-1,
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 7D
Mac Pro Tower, Quad Core,
with Final Cut StudioHP i7 Quad laptop
Adobe CS-5 Production Suite -
Thank you for the reply,
That’s really usefull about the lighting, there are quite a lot of red lights already on the stage so I will try get them to dim those a little.
The flood lights I have will have baking paper over them diffusing them to a soft beige color, I’m sure this will be alright.
Unfortunately I dont have a crane or dolly and little or no time to make one so I will have to try and simulate these shots using a tri-pod and the shoulder stabiliser. Do you advise recording all the audio for syncing later? I have a rode shotgun mic for this I think that should be alright.
One more thing,
About the fps,
I really love the look of 60p slowed to 24p, could I shoot everything at 60p and then later sync it to the music? im sure this should work somehow. In any case, i’ve seen music videos time and time again where the musicians are not sync’d to the music
Thanks again
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I assume the band has a pre-recorded track that you are shooting this for? If so, then they need to play along to this track. Record from the camera mic is fine for synching.
I wouldn’t waste time recording with 60p and then downconvert. Just shoot 24p. Unless, you want to do some slowmo shots, then have one camera shoot some shots of the guitar player, singer, jumping in the air, doing back flips, whatever, that you can slow down / speed up in post.
If you have any control over lighting, have them swap out the Red Gels on the lights. Don’t use ANY red, it looks like crap.
White balance your cameras with one lighting setup before you start shooting and set all of your cameras up with the same ISO, etc.
Go buy a Garden Cart at Home depot. sit someone on a chair in the cart with the camera on a tripod and pull them across the floor. Cheap and effective dolly. Deflate the tires a bit to give a smoother dolly.
TRIPOD shots, may or may not work depending on the flooring. I was shooting on a huge stage, but a wooden decking. The camera vibrated and the lens blurred with the loud PA, so I had everyone go handheld on the stage shots. I used a tripod up in a tower for the long shots.
You can also get cheap scaffolding to elevate your shots, or somekind of a platform.
Brent Dunn
Owner / Director / Editor
DunnRight Films
DunnRight Video.com
Video Marketing Toolbox.netSony EX-1,
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 7D
Mac Pro Tower, Quad Core,
with Final Cut StudioHP i7 Quad laptop
Adobe CS-5 Production Suite
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